Taxas de mortalidade entre os idosos de Belo Horizonte, 1996 e 2006: uma breve análise por sexo e principais causas de morte

In Brazil and all over the world, in parallel with the demographic transition, due to advances in medicine and health care, there has been an increase in the life expectancy and longevity of the elderly. This combination of factors causes changes in the pattern of morbidity and mortality which can be assessed by simple measures of both morbidity and mortality. In this study we used indicators of mortality (General mortality rates for the elderly and rates by age groups) for the elderly popula tion 65 years and more Belo Horizonte in 1996 and 2006. The main results are that (1) there is a trend of decrease of mortality rates of the elderly among the younger men and women for the most represented causes of death, (2) most often causes of death changed during the period, (3) differences could be observed for males and for females. Finally, it is important to emphasize that it is worrysome that ill defined causes of death were among the most common causes for men and women.